SUPERVISING ART DIRECTOR: Tron was a special film for me. I had been hoping to get onto an inspired work. One that reinvented sci-fi. I had brought part of my team from Avatar. Other artists included Daniel Simon, Thom Tenery, David Levy, Phil Saunders… We looked not only in the film community but all over the world. From automotive design to computer games to graphic novels. We wanted inspired folk. Joe Kosinski also brings a unique perspective having a degree in architecture. Darren Gilford an industrial designer from Art Center College of Design. The talent pool was incredible. And all very motivated.
We opened with an homage to the original film. Flynn’s arcade. We shot the original exterior in Culver City and the interior in Vancouver.
A practice that I preach a road map to the movie. Ben Procter put this amazing piece together.
As we did on Avatar, concept illustrations were based on a 3d file with a paint-over. The advantage of utilizing the 3d file was that it could be a starting point for the drafting and CNC operations. Not to mention could be handed to VFX for work in post.
I was so amazed by the costume design led by Neville Page and Phil Saunders. Integrated lighting and a state-of-the-art sense shown in automotive design. Strange that I mention car design but if you take a closer look the suit designs have form language seen in automotive body work. It also challenged manufacturing techniques by adding forms to the clear face lenses. Z-brush was a staple in this process.
So many believed that all Tron world besides some interior sets were CG only. We actually built a block and a half of Tron streets. Keep in mind the lighting in the floor meant the whole set was built on a riser. Also this was built in Vancouver which rains constantly.
Again lighting of the sets created needs in infrastructure. Set had to be built on risers. Lenses in the floor had to support the weight of the camera and shooting crew. A big challenge was to sync the lighting from panel to panel. For construction more challenges lay in the fact that there were hardly any walls that were vertical and load bearing. A lot of rigging from above was required.
The lightrunner build was only the interior of the cockpit. I brought Wildfactory in upon suggestion from one of our car guys Karl Strahlendorf. Wildfactory builds car prototypes for Audi, Volkswagen and Lamborghini. Who better to give the care we were hoping for. But there were a lot of growing pains. Most car prototypes have a year in fabrication. We had a timeframe for all mockups, plus-or-minus 5 months. The design edict was that we only build the portion of the vehicle the actor interacted to set a realistic limit for both time and money.
As with the costume design the artwork created was truly inspired. I had worked on a lot of concept film but time and time again I was amazed. This being one of the most iconic images was the new light-cycle by Daniel Simon. To see this level of concept illustrations throughout the whole process. I hope to find this again. Thank you Joe Kosinski and Darren Gilford.